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Lightning retain Marc-Andre Bergeron and Adam Hall; bigger questions await

Boston Bruins v Tampa Bay Lightning - Game Three

in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at St Pete Times Forum on May 19, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

Eliot J. Schechter

The Tampa Bay Lightning have some huge questions to answer this summer, with Steven Stamkos, both of their goalies, Simon Gagne, Teddy Purcell and Sean Bergenheim included among their pending free agents. With those big decisions in mind, GM Steve Yzerman is chipping away at some of the smaller ones.

Yzerman already handed big-minute defenseman Eric Brewer a four-year deal worth about $16 million and now he decided to keep Marc-Andre Bergeron around, giving him a two-year, $2 million contract.

One million per year seems a bit steep for an offensive defenseman with marginal market appeal. The Lightning picked up Bergeron midway through the 2010-11 season after he showed that he recovered from knee surgery, but he didn’t exactly silence his doubters. Whatever the case may be, he did enough to convince Yzerman to keep him around as a power play specialist and depth defenseman.

Lightning fans are probably happier to hear that the team also retained gritty forward Adam Hall with a one-year deal, though. Hall scored 18 points in 82 regular season games in 10-11 but most tellingly saw a big increase in time on ice per game, averaging almost 15 minutes each night after being relegated to the AHL in 2009-10 and only receiving a little more than 11 minutes per game in 08-09.